Avalon

Jeth opened his mouth to argue, his temper like a whiplash. He was not a toy.

Renford cut him off. “And there’s something else. If you bring me the lost ship, I promise to tell you what really happened to your parents.”

A shot of adrenaline surged through Jeth so hard, his vision blurred. Temptation opened up before him like a hidden trail in a dense forest.

He started to respond, then froze as noise erupted all around them.

The spaceport’s alarms were going off. Someone had found the stunned sentries.

Chapter 03

SURPRISE CROSSED RENFORD’S FACE, AND HE LOWERED the Mirage a fraction. It was all the window Jeth needed. He drew his stunner and fired.

Two simultaneous blasts—one from Jeth and one from Celeste—struck Renford, throwing him backward. Before Renford hit the ground, a bullet exploded from the Mirage. Jeth felt it soar past him.

“Lizzie!” Celeste screamed.

Jeth’s heart launched into his throat. As he turned, a vision of Lizzie lying dead on the ground, blood spurting from a crater-size hole in her body, flashed in his imagination.

“I’m all right,” Lizzie said. She was still standing, the bullet imbedded in a container behind her. She held up her arm. “It just grazed me.”

“Let me see.” Jeth grabbed her hand and yanked her arm straight. Terror at what might have happened made his fingers tremble.

“Ouch. Take it easy, will you?”

Jeth could barely hear her over the sound of the alarm, still blaring. “Turn that off!” he shouted at Celeste who was already at the nav station, working on it. The noise stopped a moment later, leaving behind a terrible ringing in Jeth’s ears.

Ignoring it, he grabbed the tear in Lizzie’s shirtsleeve and ripped it off, exposing the wound. He wiped away the blood, nausea twisting his stomach. But the wound was superficial. He wanted to hug her, but didn’t. She would never stand for it, and Celeste would never let him live down such an emotional display.

“You’ll be fine,” he said, letting go of her. He’d managed to sound calm, reassuring even, but inside his fear still throbbed like an infection. A centimeter closer and the bullet might’ve blown off her arm. Might’ve killed her.

Jeth forced the thought away, unable to face such a possibility. Not now, with disaster crashing down on them.

They needed to get out of here, but they had to get Renford off the ship first. They couldn’t risk the distrust it might provoke if Hammer found out that he had been there. What Hammer didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.

Keeping your options open, aren’t you?

Jeth let the rogue thought come and go without consideration as he turned toward where Renford had fallen. He blinked once, twice, his mouth dropping open.

Renford wasn’t there.

“That’s impossible,” said Celeste, panic in her voice. “Where the hell is he? We hit him with two stunners.”

An Echo. A shiver went through Jeth like a current. He shook his head, focusing, then faced Lizzie. “Get us unmoored. Celeste and I will search for him. There’s no telling what he might do now.”

“Hurry up,” said Lizzie, returning to the nav station. “Before they figure out which ship we’re on.”

Jeth and Celeste left the bridge, racing down the stairs. Jeth turned left toward the living quarters and the only exit through the cargo bay, while Celeste made a right toward the engineering deck. He thought he heard footsteps in the distance, but he couldn’t tell over the ferocious pounding of blood in his ears.

The cargo bay was empty as far as he could tell, and he raced to the rear access door to check if Renford had made it outside. He pulled it open and peered out.

“You there!”

Jeth glanced sideways and saw a sentry taking aim with a stunner. The shot zoomed out a second later, whizzing by his head close enough to warm his face.

He lurched backward. Enough with the close calls already. Had he really thought this job was boring? Jeth shut the door, and pressed the communicator patch behind his ear as he ran back across the walkway. “Get us loose, Lizzie. They’ve found us. Celeste, get to the bridge.”

“Already on my way,” Celeste answered a second later.

Jeth almost crashed into her as he reached the living quarters, but she raced ahead of him. When they hit the bridge, she dove into the pilot’s chair, taking hold of the control column. A second later, the ship pitched forward with a loud scrape of metal on metal. The Montrose wasn’t quite loose from the docking bay locks, but the ship was powerful enough to break free.

Jeth sat down in the copilot’s chair, adrenaline bringing his thoughts into sharp focus. He scanned the control panel, quickly locating the comm switch. He adjusted the frequency, then said into the mike, “You reading me, Joyrider?”

A couple seconds passed before Will Shady’s loud, gruff voice said back, “Got you, Boss. You heading out?”

“Oh yeah, with a firestorm on our ass. Get ready.”

“Yee-haw,” said Shady.

Ahead of them, the Kordan Spaceport’s patrol ships were already starting to swarm. Their narrow, upright shape reminded Jeth of piranhas he’d seen in First-Earth textbooks, except instead of teeth filling their front ends, they had guns. Lots of them.

The Montrose had no offensive weapons, but it came equipped with the most powerful field shielding available. Jeth located the shield button and activated it in time to deflect the first stream of gunfire. The patrols were aiming for the rear of the Montrose, trying to knock out the main engines. Jeth pulled up the shield system status screen, keeping his eyes fixed on the integrity readouts and wishing he could shoot at something instead.